Freesound Forums

Greetings and welcome to the...

This thread is intended to be a hub in the Freesound forum for movie-goers to recommend and discuss good films. We have had a few threads hither and thither in the past, geared towards the same thing but no “hub” per se. Due to the nature of the site, its only natural for recommended films to have a priority in the sound design/soundtrack department, however, we welcome all recommendations and particularly encourage commentary on the audio aspects of the films for whatever reason; this is in off-topic after all so it doesn't necessarily have to reflect the specific topic of the site. TV series are welcome too.

Here’s how to participate:

1. Watch films
2. Post in thread your recommendation (one at a time)
3. Let the discussion ensue

Important rules to follow:

• No major spoilers please; it should go without saying, there’s no point in recommending a good movie if it’s spoiled by knowing crucial events during the narrative, so please be careful how you discuss plots.
• Be nice and tolerant, movie watching is subjective so we are not all going to enjoy and agree on the same things, and so it will be appreciated to show some respect for others’ choices of watching material. And, conversely, don’t be offended if your recommendation is either ignored or not received well by others.
• Keep it tasteful. Obscure and independent films of all age ratings are welcome by all means, but no pornography or borderline please.
• When you recommend a movie, please bolden the text of the title so it's easy to see in your post when scrolling. make text bold by wrapping it in this < b >your text here< / b > (remove the spaces)
• Don't post links to torrents or illegal download locations.

I will be periodically updating this thread as time goes by, so if you’re interested watch this space. As part of this club, I will be producing a weekly or fortnightly “movie of the week” (MOTW) feature for which I will embed below this post and publish an update post so you know when it has arrived (haven’t decided the time period yet). This feature will be determined on a few objective factors, but ultimately it will be decided by me, but as a group we can agree upon a feature and I will add it to the list for future updates.

TL;DR - Watch films, discuss and be considerate

*disclaimer* ~ I am not intending to promote illegal pirating/download of published films. The individual members of the community are solely responsible for how they wish to obtain movies recommended here. I do not and will not endorse or encourage this activity.

**Special thanks to toiletrolltube for his encouragement to get this toilet tube rolling, so to speak**

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Director: Neill Blomkamp
Year: 2009
IMDb link: District 9
Short synopsis: An extraterrestrial race, forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth, suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.
Interesting afterthoughts/articles: Exclusive Interview with Dave Whitehead, Sound Designer of District 9

Previous features:

• Moon - 2009
• Under the skin - 2013

Sorry about the delayed response, I was finishing up holiday stuff. Also travelling. You know how it is at christmas

toiletrolltube wrote:
I'll have to watch Under the Skin again before I comment on it... One of the best films I've ever seen though.

It really is; for me too and many other people, which is why I decided to kick the first post off with it. I don't actually like Scarlett as an actress usually, but because the role is so ambiguous, I thought she actually did a really great job of it. The sound design and music is particularly special, it made that film what it is. Did you know it took like a decade to make it? (pre-production to release)

Damn it Headphaze, you've got my movie head going.

That was the idea Now, if only we could get other to join the hubbub.

Thanks for the recommendation - "Into the forest" - I have not seen it. And also, the other film i'm not going to watch for obvious reasons.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/

it's quite late for this movie now, but It's the best movie for Christmas Eve.

Well I'll be keeping it alive as well remember with my MOTW.

I'm just wondering if this is the appropriate sub-forum for the thread? Probably should belong in off-topic, even if people visit it less. But we'll be missing out.

toiletrolltube wrote:
Ah, but where would it fit though? (if I don't understand your question correctly, forgive me) I can't see an appropriate forum category. Kinda the reason I created another blog, but I'm not in the mood for updating it at the moment. The list is still quite long.

That's the thing, it won't fit anywhere else, thus it's fitting right where it is

Just keep it up, and wait. The important thing is sharing your film experiences.
I will help as much as possible to keep it on the surface of "off topic".

Yeah, i'm patient. I'll be updating periodically as I said with a post to revive so it doesn't get lost. I would appreciate if it wasn't just two losers using the forum to have a private conversation. XD

Anyway. as a side note, I managed to catch up on Westworld. the season finale blew me away. The audio design and soundtrack in that show is really something worth raving about. I'm not sure if you've seen any of it...

P.S. I did get round to watching Anomalisa and also 10 Coverfield Lane, just forgot to mention in the other thread.

Anomalisa was quite good, it wasn't really doing anything for me, except amaze me at the quality of model animation. It was an interesting concept i'll say but I just found it quite boring for lack of a better word.

As for 10 Cloverfield: I absolutely loved it. 9/10 movie in my opinion (maybe that's too generous) but it pushed all the right buttons. The ending was very unexpected.

YES film discussion.

10 Cloverfield Lane was such a well-acted movie on such a small set. I remember rarely leaving the edge of my seat the entire second half. Crazy that it was not even produced to be a Cloverfield movie in anyway whatsoever, but was rather given that association thanks to (I believe) JJ Abrams picking up on it?

From a soundtrack standpoint I seriously need to recommend the sci-fi movie Oblivion. First selfishly, I am a serious sucker for M83's Anthony Gonzalez and the romantic routes he took with his music. This film was basically his film music premiere, after his last album finally gave him broad mainstream success. He scored the soundtrack with an experienced composer Joseph Trapanese, which helped since Gonzalez had worked thematically before but never on a full movie. In interviews he had always mentioned this being a dream of his however, and so enjoying this movie after M83's album "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" pushed him into the spotlight just felt like you were riding along with him to a glorious peak of fame.

Secondly, and more importantly, the soundtrack stands on its own as unique and creative. I remember a few weeks back watching a youtube video on the inauthenticity of Hollywood scores and how many pieces are in fact just stolen from other movies because they sound similar and fit the scene. Guess designers put in a prior made piece to see if the director likes the mood, and sometimes the director will just be like "do it like that one." This made me so mad. It just reinforces the notion of sound use in absence of meaningful purpose.
So I watched Oblivion again for probably the 20th time. In Oblivion it feels like the soundtrack/score was built around the story, each track purposely laid out and the main theme noticeably underscoring several key uplifting moments in the movie. PLUS the title track features Susanne Sundfør who is a total fox and amazing singer. Hell, they scored a dueling drum battle into a song purely because (they wanted to) they felt the scene required it to help build a sense of conflict and anxiety.
I don't know I just feel the creative forces from Gonzalez as originally a studio musician and Trapanese as a film composer dancing together throughout.

And ya know, the story itself is fairly interesting too.
/endsuggestion

Hey TomchikRec. This is a bit late but better than never I guess.

I watched Oblivion some time ago, now before I watched it initially I thought I might not like it because of Tom Cruise, however it was a very special movie. I remember being blown away by the audio track; music and sound design alike. You reminded me I must re-watch it again. I had no idea that M83's Anthony was behind the music score. This excites me even more so!

Thanks for dropping in to contribute. I hope you can stay and offer more nuggets in the future.

Cheers
dp

toiletrolltube wrote:
Just watched this brilliant Documentary. Definitely worth 55 minutes of your time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr7MWxADnko

That was a surprisingly interesting watch, I'd never heard of Pitcairn before.

One film I've been interested in lately is Speilberg's "War of the Worlds". Sure, the story isn't particularly great, or faithful to H.G.Wells, but the sound design is excellent.

I've been trying to figure out how they made the tripod sound: perhaps an over-amplified didgeridoo and/or a low brass instrument. Wonder if anyone else has any thoughts?

Also interesting what predictions you guys have for the Oscars. I went on a bit of an animation marathon last year and can't decide between rooting for "Zootopia" or "Kubo and the Two Strings", they were both brilliant films.

Edit: Well hah, I had not thought of googling how the tripod sound was made before this post. Turns out it was a didgeridoo and a djembe.

InspectorJ wrote:
One film I've been interested in lately is Speilberg's "War of the Worlds". Sure, the story isn't particularly great, or faithful to H.G.Wells, but the sound design is excellent.

I've been trying to figure out how they made the tripod sound: perhaps an over-amplified didgeridoo and/or a low brass instrument. Wonder if anyone else has any thoughts?

Also interesting what predictions you guys have for the Oscars. I went on a bit of an animation marathon last year and can't decide between rooting for "Zootopia" or "Kubo and the Two Strings", they were both brilliant films.

Edit: Well hah, I had not thought of googling how the tripod sound was made before this post. Turns out it was a didgeridoo and a djembe.

Oh my gosh. The sound of the tripedal alien crafts were just spine chilling in that film. Yes I couldn't agree more on your sentiment about the sound design. There's something about sound that it can make a mediocre film in terms of cast and story into a excellent viewing experience (at least for people like us anyway).

Fascinating

It's been 11 years since I saw this film, definitely worth a re-view i think. I don't know if I can bear Tom Cruise just yet though, he's someone I can only watch with moderation. A good actor, but with a lot of stigma attached to him which is hard to detach from. I'm talking about the Scientology stuff.

Earlier today I watched a film called Symbol (Shinboru in Japanese).

Think of the weirdest movie you've ever seen, I guarantee this is much weirder than that. It's worth experiencing, so I thought i'd share it. This is one of those films you just cannot categorise into any genre other than "WTF did I just watch". The sound design of the film is superb actually, I don't want to spoil anything by giving details but I can say that the nature of this film requires careful selection of sound effects to drive the peculiar narrative, so from a sound design perspective it's also well worth watching.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1410261/

Enjoy

hey, i've been looking around for symbol and can't find it. someone give me a tip?

BronsonQ wrote:
[SPAM]

Spam post above folks, no downloads, no uploads, only a link to external sites.

Don't follow any of its links which could lead to dangerous sites.

InspectorJ wrote:

BronsonQ wrote:
[SPAM]

Spam post above folks, no downloads, no uploads, only a link to external sites.

Don't follow any of its links which could lead to dangerous sites.

Thanks for the warning. Use the report button because believe it or not these reports make their way to site admins.

Thanh for all share

sorry off topic.
if i was to attempt to erase the string on somthing I'm pulling in a movie scene,
what would be the term i used in my editor.?

bummblefly wrote:
sorry off topic.
if i was to attempt to erase the string on somthing I'm pulling in a movie scene,
what would be the term i used in my editor.?

I'm struggling to understand what you're asking

UPDATE (it's been a while)

Added new featured movie to the OP

https://www.freesound.org/forum/off-topic/39903/?page=1#post88174

Moon is a good one!
a sleeper, too. i don't remember it getting any press when it came out.

@bummblefly, in the "olden days" you could use a chromakey, a specific color of string and key in a still of the same shot without the string. same technique tv weathermen use. modern software probably has different terminology, but start with chromakey and you'll find it.

parabolix wrote:
Moon is a good one!
a sleeper, too. i don't remember it getting any press when it came out.

Still to this day it's one of the best films I've seen, most of my friends and acquaintances haven't heard of it.
But when I tell them that it's the same director as Source Code, they feel dumbfounded.

Have you heard of Duncan Jones' forthcoming feature, Mute? It looks really good. You know it's gonna be a cracker.

New featured film update. If you haven't watched this one yet, I strongly urge you to do so.